Thursday, 26 June 2014

Buddy Van Horn: My life as Clint Eastwood’s stuntman

The IndependentMonday, 9 August 2010

As the body behind the stunts of five-time Oscar winner
Clint Eastwood until well into his sixties, Laura Davis talks to 81 year-old
Buddy Van Horn about what it was like to work for the western legend throughout
his expansive career

Growing
up opposite Universal Studios in Southern California, Buddy was always privy to
the movie scene, but he never expected to end up in the business. Due to his
upbringing, he never needed any official training to take on the role of
stuntman: “I grew up with horses, at a time with period pictures and westerns
and I was a trained horseman so I already knew that end of it coming in. We had
to erect wagons and things, but I had other professionals that helped me learn.”

Any
training he did acquire was along the way, and although he grew up around
horses and carts, there were still surprises when working with them: “I think
more people were hurt and injured around livestock and wagons than the modern
day automobiles! Wagons and horses are very unpredictable at times.”

When
asked about what injuries he has suffered along the way, the former stuntman is
guarded: “Someone once asked me that and I told them I fell out of an aeroplane
and the parachute didn't open. I died.”

It appears to be his reticence to
come across as bragging about how dangerous his career has been at points,
merely pointing out that he’s had a few bumps along the way. He does share that the longest time he’s been in hospital was for about 5
or 6 months.

In an occupation where risk is part
of the job description, he describes the importance of knowing your limits: “A
lot of guys - because they want the job - they get themselves in trouble. They’re wanting their pay check and they’re overstepping their ability to do
what they’re about to
do. It doesn’t happen
all the time but it does happen.”

In some instances he’s seen some friends risk their lives
for stunts, and sadly not been lucky enough to survive them.

With tighter regulations on health
and safety rules, Buddy has noticed how things have improved greatly along the
years, however. “There’s
always the element of risk involved but you try to take as much of that out as
possible.”

As Clint Eastwood’s long-time stunt double, he describes
how the actor often wanted to perform his own stunts: “There’s been a couple of times that he’s wanted to do something and I
talked him out of it. He’s
a pretty physical guy and likes to do his own stunts. Some of the things he
does were pretty easy to get banged up. I’ve tried to talk him out of it sometimes, but
not very successfully most of the time. He went 'n' did ‘em anyway, several of ‘em. He’s been banged up a few times.”

Having worked alongside Eastwood for
practically the entirety of his career, he’s exceptionally grateful for everything he’s done for him along the way:

“It’s
a dream job. I wake up sometimes and I can’t wait to get to work when I’m
working with him. He makes things so easy for ya. We’re not a social group or
anything like that, it’s always professional. We’re good friends but we don’t
socialise. He has his special friends and I have mine. It’s easy. He’s Mr Easy.
He makes things easy and uncomplicated on the films I worked on and that I
directed. He said “Oh don’t worry Buddy just go ahead and do it. If we have to
do it again don’t worry we’ll just do it.” He takes all the pressure off you
and that goes for coordinating action or anything you've done for him. He’s not
worried about success, but he’s done well.”

“I
think a lot of the actors like to do certain things to a point you can let ‘em do it safely - that’s fine - but I think there’s a line there you better draw as
the company that they’re
with has a lot of money invested in them too and you don’t want to shut the company down.
There have been times when I’ve tried to talk people out of doing things, most of the time I’m successful. The times with Clint
when he got a few bumps and bruises I didn't think he needed.”

Buddy was responsible for the stunt
coordination on 'Million Dollar Baby', which won four Oscars in 2005 “That was
terrific. I’m so happy
for Clint’s success he’s to me such an unassuming kind of a
guy, I don’t know if he
realises how good he really is.”

Although stunts aren’t officially recognised by the Academy
Awards, there have been proposals to introduce an Oscar for Best Stunt
Coordination in 1999 and in 2005, but they were rejected both times. This makes
it apparent that for some stunt doubles, it might be difficult to allow others
to accept the praise for their work: “I think some guys want recognition and I’ve never felt that way. I really got
in it just to make a living and I think the audience are sophisticated enough
to know they do use a double now and then, but why broadcast it around? Awards
and things - I’m just
not one to think about wanting anything like that.”

Buddy was awarded a Lifetime
Achievement Award from the Taurus World Stunt Awards Foundation in 2002, but
was reluctant to attend: “I wasn’t gonna do it! Then I found out they wanted to know why and said well
who’s making the money
off of this? And they said we give a big chunk of this money to injured
stuntmen. So I said sure ok I’ll go do it then. If it was just to go out and publicise their product
or anything like that then no. But sure I felt honoured. It’s nice. I’m old stuff now though.”

Eastwood
also chose Van Horn to direct 'Any Which Way You Can' (1980), 'The Dead Pool'
(1988), and 'Pink Cadillac' (1989), so he’s experienced behind the camera as
well as in front of it. He feels that the increasing use of CGI can take the
realism out of films: “They’re doing more and more of it all the time, so I
like to see real people doing real stunts. Course I'm retired now so I don’t
have to worry about hitting the ground. The older you get, the harder the
ground gets.”

Consequently there has been a need
to make stunts more dangerous and exciting along the way: “The kids today are
better prepared and the equipment’s better. Some of the things they do is really living on the edge. Some
of the stunts they do today are wild. It’s a bad time for stunt people now I think I’ve seen the best of it.”

As films and video games are often
seen as responsible for influencing bad behaviour in children, I asked Buddy
whether any blame should lie with the creators:“I don’t get into that. There’s a lot of that stuff I don’t get involved in. I’d make sure that I watched what they
were looking at first in case it was too violent, I don’t think I’d let 'em. Sometimes people blame them, I’ve seen it happen and you hear about
it happening now and then but parents have to take some responsibility. Parents
can be at fault letting their kids do some dumb things that they shouldn’t be doing. A lot of time you see
the disclaimer 'Don’t
try this at home' –
there are a lot of no-brainers out there. Some people do some dumb things. I
call those people daredevils I don’t call ‘em
stuntmen.”

Buddy
worked with Clint Eastwood for over half a century and collaborated with him in
over 20 of the films that appear in his new boxset 'Clint Eastwood: 35 Films 35
Years'. Other big screen features Buddy coordinated the stunts for include
'Mystic River', 'The Changeling' and 'Gran Torino'. Having performed stunts
until he was into his 60s, Buddy finally felt that at 80 it was probably time
to retire: “I’m just I’m enjoying my time off. If Clint said hey you wanna come
and do something, I would do it - I wouldn’t do it for anyone else.”